1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to design automation tools for electronic devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for evaluating the device's design under test (DUT) by automatically generating test components and including them in a simulation testbench.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The increasing complexity of electronic devices has prompted logic designers to use a variety of design automation tools to assist in implementing a design on electronic devices such as programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), and system-on-a-chip devices (SOCs). In one example, a simulation testbench is used to subject the design to a stimulus, such as a test component, whereby the design can be tested and evaluated for implementation.
However, the mechanisms for simulating a design having an on-device component (i.e., component located on the device) interacting with an off-device component (i.e., component located off the device) are limited. Generally, manual installation of an off-device test component in the simulation testbench is required. That is, a logic designer needs to either construct an off-device test component from scratch or obtain an already constructed off-device test component from a vendor. The test component is then manually wired to the design under test for stimulation. Before stimulation can begin, however, the logic designer is typically required to also manually configure and seed the test component with initial contents. Further, manual installation is required every time an off-device test component is needed to stimulate a DUT having an on-device component counterpart.
The manual installation of the off-device test component is often a tedious, time-consuming, and error prone task. It is therefore desirable to provide improved methods and apparatus for efficiently testing and evaluating designs that have on-device components interacting with off-device components.